Loading...
82nd out of 141 books
—
17 voters
My rating:
add to my books
Heroes
Francis Joseph Cassavant is eighteen. He has just returned home from the Second World War, and he has no face. He does have a gun and a mission: to murder his childhood hero.
Francis lost most of his face when he fell on a grenade in France. He received the Silver Star for bravery, but was it really an act of heroism? Now, having survived, he is looking for a man he once ad...more
Francis lost most of his face when he fell on a grenade in France. He received the Silver Star for bravery, but was it really an act of heroism? Now, having survived, he is looking for a man he once ad...more
Mass Market Paperback, 144 pages
Published
January 21st 2009
by Laurel Leaf
(first published 1998)
There is a good chance some of your friends read this book. Sign in to see!
sign in »
Friend Reviews
To see what your friends thought of this book,
please sign up.
Community Reviews
(showing
1-30
of
598)
Cormier, Robert (1998). Heroes. New York: Delacorte Press. 135 pages.
Summary and Evaluation: After three years fighting in World War II, Francis Cassavant returns home a mangled, faceless Silver Star war hero. He still has one final mission though – to find and eliminate the childhood hero who destroyed his life. The reasons for this intense hatred are unraveled through the main character’s flashbacks and examine the nature of heroism and cowardice, betrayal and revenge.
...more
Summary and Evaluation: After three years fighting in World War II, Francis Cassavant returns home a mangled, faceless Silver Star war hero. He still has one final mission though – to find and eliminate the childhood hero who destroyed his life. The reasons for this intense hatred are unraveled through the main character’s flashbacks and examine the nature of heroism and cowardice, betrayal and revenge.
...more
view 1 comment
This is another one of those books which my son brought home from school, apparently it is part of his GCSE English curriculum. I wasn't really looking forward to it and I was thinking it was just going to be a war thiller.
Francis has come home from WW2 after suffering a horrendous disfigurement. He has his face covered in bandages and a scarf and goes back to the town where he grew up. Where other war veterans are thinking of ways to get their lives back together, Francis has other ...more
Francis has come home from WW2 after suffering a horrendous disfigurement. He has his face covered in bandages and a scarf and goes back to the town where he grew up. Where other war veterans are thinking of ways to get their lives back together, Francis has other ...more
This dark, fictional novel tells the story of Francis Cassavant after he returns home to Frenchtown, New Jersey from World War II. He is an eighteen-year-old boy who has no face from falling onto a grenade during the war, and is on a personal mission to murder his childhood hero. The novel explores the idea of being a hero, the events of his past, what truly drives his actions, and the results of each event on the main characters years later. The plot unfolds in an intriguing way that keeps t...more
I was not expecting to like this book. In fact, even about halfway through I was thinking of possible reviews and had settled on giving the book three stars. I wouldn't say that it started slow, but I think Cormier throws you into the mix of already-made decisions and consequences without the history and motivations behind them. I am not a very patient reader, so that always bothers me a little bit. But in this case, I take back all of my premature judgments, because I really appreciated this no...more
In this lean and powerful novel called heroes, Robert Cormier queitly, shows the nature of heroism as it is reflected through the remains of a young life forever shattered by a tirrible life. Francis Cassavant is 18. He has just returned home from World War II, and he has no face. he has a gun and a mission: to murder his childhood hero. Francis's needs for his burning "mission" to avenge the rape of his high school girlfriend by killing her rapist, Larry Lasalle, the youth leader whos...more
Larry LaSalle. Need I say more? He is the coolest, most good-looking kid in all of Frenchtown. He’s got it all! Larry LaSalle is a hero to all of the kids in Frenchtown, especially Francis Joseph Cassavant. Francis looked up to Larry…it’s a shame that he has to kill him. You see, Larry raped Francis’ girlfriend while Francis was in WWII. Francis is eighteen now… and he has returned home without a face. During the war, a grenade blew off Francis’ lips, nose, and ears. His eyes and eardrums ...more
"It's amazing that the heart makes no noise when it cracks."
—Heroes, P. 97
This book would easily earn three and a half stars from me.
Heroes doesn't begin with the same feeling of raw intensity as the other Robert Cormier books I've read, but that breathtaking pressure definitely sets in with full force as the novel progresses. The scenes are split between Francis Cassavant as he is now, an eighteen-year-old war veteran whose life at some...more
—Heroes, P. 97
This book would easily earn three and a half stars from me.
Heroes doesn't begin with the same feeling of raw intensity as the other Robert Cormier books I've read, but that breathtaking pressure definitely sets in with full force as the novel progresses. The scenes are split between Francis Cassavant as he is now, an eighteen-year-old war veteran whose life at some...more
Heroes by Robert Cormier is a very interesting story. what i liked about it was how this book makes you ask, "Does one sin wipe away everything good a person has done." In the story, young Francis Cassavant growing up, experienced a horrible event when the mentor or hero of his life was caught trying to rape the girl he fell in love with. feeling powerless and ashamed, he looked at suicide as an option, but realized the best death for him was in war. during this time in Frenchtown New ...more
This is the story of a war veteran named Francis who is only 19 years old but already has scars from being in World War II. Saying he has scars is a little bit of an understatement. In fact he almost has no face left. He keeps his face hidden under a hankerchief and hat at all times because he doesn't want anyone in his hometown to recognise him. The reason why is because the only reason he has come home is to kill his childhood hero. As the story unfolds you realize why he is out to kill and wh...more
Heroes
By Robert Cormier
144 pp. Laurel Leaf.
ISBN: 0-440-22769-0
Heroes is a touching, yet serious story about a young man named Francis Cassavant. As a soldier fighting in World War II he returns to his hometown with no nose, ears, teeth or cheeks. Although he can still hear and see, he seeks revenge on a man named Larry LaSalle. Once the man who influenced and inspired Francis, LaSalle rapes the woman that Francis loved dearly, Nicole. "Closing my eyes, I thi...more
By Robert Cormier
144 pp. Laurel Leaf.
ISBN: 0-440-22769-0
Heroes is a touching, yet serious story about a young man named Francis Cassavant. As a soldier fighting in World War II he returns to his hometown with no nose, ears, teeth or cheeks. Although he can still hear and see, he seeks revenge on a man named Larry LaSalle. Once the man who influenced and inspired Francis, LaSalle rapes the woman that Francis loved dearly, Nicole. "Closing my eyes, I thi...more
This follows the story of eighteen year old Francis who has just returned how from WWII. His face was mutilated in a grenade accident but everyone considers him a hero. It's soon revealed that Francis has a deep hatred for a childhood hero. The novel goes on to slowly reveal why Francis has such a deep rooted hatred for this man. His hate is linked mostly to a childhood girlfriend whom with this man committed some unnamable sin. This warped Francis's view of what it means to be a hero and in ord...more
This is the story of an innocent, shy teenage boy. His name is Francis and he's not good at very much. He doesn't think highly of himself until he meets a man named Larry Lasalle. He's the head of the rec center in their New England town. Its at this rec center he gets up the courage to hold hands with the love of his life (Nicole) and gain skills in table tennis. It is also because of Larry that Francis decides to forge his birth certificate in order to enlist in the armed forces. He comes back...more
HEROES is a story of Francis Joseph Cassavantd who enlisted early in World War II but has returned. His face was, to put it lightly, blasted off. You get information from him through the form of flashbacks and you discover his dark pass and why he ran and joined the army at age sixteen. Francis also has one goal and that is too kill his mentor, after finding out why, you are hopping that he pulls the trigger not only on his mentor but also on his self.
I liked this book. IT was real...more
I liked this book. IT was real...more
During a time of war, people are still living their lives. Even so, I never thought how joining the war would be desirable. It seemed like it was a way to run away from all your problems and become a man. Or follow the popular crowd. In the end, many don't realize how terrible war really is.
I dislike that I felt compassion towards Larry LaSalle, a man who did something terrible. I also feel sorry for Francis and the guilt he carries. This book made me think about my definition of wha...more
I dislike that I felt compassion towards Larry LaSalle, a man who did something terrible. I also feel sorry for Francis and the guilt he carries. This book made me think about my definition of wha...more
This is a book about the aftermath of World War 2 and the before also. Francis is the main character. He has just returned home from fighting in World War 2. He is not returning for the typical welcome home. He is coming home with a ruined face. He threw himself on top of a grenade which ruined his face and left him unrecognizable. He has come home to kill his childhood hero who influenced him to join the war effort. The book chronicles the before and after events of the war. His encounters with...more
This book was amazing! I just cannot get the story out of my head. It is about a soldier that stepped on a land mine and so now he is missing most of his face. It tells about the challenges of a young man coming back from war, and really having lost everything. At parts I really wanted to shut the book because it was painful to think about how it would be to be without a nose, raw cheeks and flaps for ears.
This book really deals with some real situations, and Cormier does not censor a...more
This book really deals with some real situations, and Cormier does not censor a...more
Well honestly, I'm not much of a reader unless well I find the right book. This book was really enjoyable though and kind of got me interested right from the beginning because well I just wanted to know what had happened to him. First of all, it was set in a time I'm very interested in and it was nice to see something like this set post World War II. Also, a book doesn't have to be long to get it's point across much like this book. It had a unique relationship with the two characters, and I felt...more
Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, come to think about it, perhaps I like it more than Chocolate War . . . completely changes your idea of how we think and define "heroes".
Wow. This book really impacted me while I was reading it. I actually felt a great sadness toward the end of the story, something that rarely happens when I read. The main character is really fleshed out and made interesting, both in his life before the war and after. I liked the flashback method of telling the story. Throughout the whole novel, I was aching to know how Francis ended up how he did, both physically and emotionally. And during the flashbacks, I gradually got more of the whole...more
I liked this book a lot! I have never read a book from Robert Cormier and I'm glad that I've started. He truly is the father of YA Literature. His writing is so straight forward, raw, and easy to read. I liked how he starts the book off with the imagery of the main characters physical features, it really grabs you into the story and catches your attention. I also like the themes that were presented in the book, for example, what does it mean to be a hero? It is a really short book but is so deve...more
Robert Cormier's novel Heroes is about just that: Heroes, and when the protagonist Francis Cassavant returns home from WWII and acknowledged as a hero, he wonders why. With his face blown-off, Francis is pleased that no one can recognize him since it will make his mission to kill his once-deemed hero easier! As Francis returns to certain places of his adolecence from before the war, he remembers why he once thought that Larry LaSalle was his hero, and why he himself is not.
This nov...more
This nov...more
this story is about a man named Francis a man who joined the army in world war 2 and while in the war his face got blown up by a grenade and his doctor has cared for him. He returned to his home town and he is looking for the girl he loved. For days he has hidden his identity until someone found out his true identity. So he told him to keep it secret but the told him to to come hang out with his old friends so he did for a while . But one day one of his friends found out that something was wrong...more
Heroes is a gripping an intense journey through the mind of an eighteen year old veteran haunted by his former childhood mentor. Francis enlisted during World War 2 at sixteen after forging his certificate of birth. Why? To escape the memories of his childhood mentor as well as the love of his life, Nicole. Cormier's novel at times maybe troublesome as he explores issues most would like to be left alone. His novel is raw and honest. This bleak novel will test many readers' sensibilities. Though ...more
Francis Cassavant grew up like most kids in Frenchtown, hanging out at the Wreck Center with their hero Larry LaSalle. But after returning from the war with a grenade destroyed face, his self proclaimed mission is to kill his once hero Larry LaSalle. Cormier smoothly transitions between the present and the past as the story and motive unfolds. This book kept me reading as I got closer and closer to discovering the truth about what happened to make Francis hate Larry so much. It was a pretty quic...more
Francis has just returned home from fighting in World War II. He has received a silver star for landing on a grenade and saving many lives but his face was basically blow off during his moment of heroism. Francis has returned to his home town with a specific mission...to kill his childhood hero.
This book was definitely an easy read and was kind of intense. His childhood hero had done something pretty bad and after Francis had survived the war he was ready to seek his revenge. It's an intens...more
This book was definitely an easy read and was kind of intense. His childhood hero had done something pretty bad and after Francis had survived the war he was ready to seek his revenge. It's an intens...more
Francis Joseph Cassavant is eighteen. He has just returned home from the Second World War, and he has no face. He does have a gun and a mission, to murder his childhood hero. Francis lost most of his face when he fell on a grenade in France. He received the Silver Star for bravery, but was it really an act of heroism?
Now, having survived, he is looking for a man he once admired and respected, a man adored by many people, a man who also received a Silver Star for bravery. A man who destroy...more
Now, having survived, he is looking for a man he once admired and respected, a man adored by many people, a man who also received a Silver Star for bravery. A man who destroy...more
For those of us who have never known war, there's something chilling about the post-war experience of those who have. For all the bullet-dodging action heroes that Hollywood produces and America consumes, we rarely get a taste for the horrors that the scarred veteran must face upon return to the home-front. Even when a movie does try to convey that horror, it remains a visual experience.
Robert Cormier's "Heroes" has no such problems. Francis, Cormier's young protagonist, h...more
Robert Cormier's "Heroes" has no such problems. Francis, Cormier's young protagonist, h...more
This is going to be a short review, because it was a short book, a mere 100 pages. I loved it though. The reason I read this is funny. I saw it my little brother’s room (he’s 17). He’s not a reader at all, but he had to read it for school, and I just couldn’t look myself in the eye if he had read a single book that I hadn’t (apart from the A Series of Unfortunate Events which he loved when he was 14 and I was already old enough to not be interested). So, I started and finished it yesterday.
...more
...more
I am currently doing my litriture exam on this book ive got to say i never thought it would be as good as what it is. I has lots of themes especially heroism. I personally liked the book due to the fact it had lots of mystries and i read the book the same day i got it. The negative of the book would have to be the confusion of where he is, is he in a flashback or in the war or present time.
I would defo recommend this to a friens.
I would defo recommend this to a friens.
Top teenage fiction that interests the reader from the first page and deals with the notion of being a 'hero' - asking whether it is based upon actions, motives or the perceptions of others. Written in the first person, partially in flashback, it tells the two stories of 'hero' soldier Francis Cassavant - his childhood before he enlisted to join the army as well as his anonymous return after being awarded a medal for bravery.
It's a very short book and could be read in a couple of evenings and a...more
It's a very short book and could be read in a couple of evenings and a...more
There are no discussion topics on this book yet.
Be the first to start one »
Robert Edmund Cormier (January 17, 1925–November 2, 2000) was an American author, columnist and reporter, known for his deeply pessimistic, downbeat literature. His most popular works include I Am the Cheese, After the First Death, We All Fall Down and The Chocolate War, all of which have won awards. The Chocolate War was challenged in multiple libraries. His books often are concerned with themes ...more
More about Robert Cormier...
Share This Book
2 trivia questions
More quizzes & trivia...
“It's amazing that the heart makes no noise when it cracks.”
—
69 people liked it
“Everybody sins, Francis. The terrible thing is that we love our sins. We love the thing that makes us evil.”
—
4 people liked it
More quotes…
